Pa.'s attempts to track gas drilling waste flawed

FILE- In this Dec. 15, 2010 file photo, some of the holding and treatment tanks at the water intake and treatment plant for the Beaver Falls Municipal Authority is seen in Beaver Falls, Pa. The natural gas industry’s claim that it is making great strides in reducing how much polluted wastewater it discharges to Pennsylvania rivers is proving difficult to assess, because of inconsistent reporting by energy companies and at least one big data entry error in the state’s system for tracking the contaminated fluids. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic, File)
— AP

FILE- In this Dec. 15, 2010 file photo, some of the holding and treatment tanks at the water intake and treatment plant for the Beaver Falls Municipal Authority is seen in Beaver Falls, Pa. The natural gas industry’s claim that it is making great strides in reducing how much polluted wastewater it discharges to Pennsylvania rivers is proving difficult to assess, because of inconsistent reporting by energy companies and at least one big data entry error in the state’s system for tracking the contaminated fluids. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic, File)
/ AP

FILE- In this Dec. 15, 2010 file photo, Jim Riggio, the plant manager for the Beaver Falls Municipal Authority, shows the filtering rig that the treatment plant used to develop improvements in the treatment of the water at the intake facility in Beaver Falls, Pa.. The natural gas industry’s claim that it is making great strides in reducing how much polluted wastewater it discharges to Pennsylvania rivers is proving difficult to assess, because of inconsistent reporting by energy companies, and at least one big data entry error in the state’s system for tracking the contaminated fluids. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic, File)— AP

FILE- In this Dec. 15, 2010 file photo, Jim Riggio, the plant manager for the Beaver Falls Municipal Authority, shows the filtering rig that the treatment plant used to develop improvements in the treatment of the water at the intake facility in Beaver Falls, Pa.. The natural gas industry’s claim that it is making great strides in reducing how much polluted wastewater it discharges to Pennsylvania rivers is proving difficult to assess, because of inconsistent reporting by energy companies, and at least one big data entry error in the state’s system for tracking the contaminated fluids. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic, File)
/ AP

FILE- In this Dec. 15, 2010 file photo, Cecil Griffith, right, the maintenance supervisor, and Jim Riggio, the plant manager for the Beaver Falls Municipal Authority, are reflected in the water of one of the filtering tanks at the Beaver falls Municipal Authority water treatment plant in Beaver Falls, Pa. The natural gas industry’s claim that it is making great strides in reducing how much polluted wastewater it discharges to Pennsylvania rivers is proving difficult to assess, because of inconsistent reporting by energy companies and at least one big data entry error in the state’s system for tracking the contaminated fluids. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic, File)— AP

FILE- In this Dec. 15, 2010 file photo, Cecil Griffith, right, the maintenance supervisor, and Jim Riggio, the plant manager for the Beaver Falls Municipal Authority, are reflected in the water of one of the filtering tanks at the Beaver falls Municipal Authority water treatment plant in Beaver Falls, Pa. The natural gas industry’s claim that it is making great strides in reducing how much polluted wastewater it discharges to Pennsylvania rivers is proving difficult to assess, because of inconsistent reporting by energy companies and at least one big data entry error in the state’s system for tracking the contaminated fluids. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic, File)
/ AP

The natural gas industry's claim that it is making great strides in reducing how much polluted wastewater it discharges to Pennsylvania rivers is proving difficult to assess because of inconsistent reporting by energy companies - and at least one big data entry error in the state's system for tracking the contaminated fluids.

Last month, Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection released data that appeared to show that drillers had found a way to recycle nearly 6.9 million barrels of the toxic brine produced by natural gas wells - fluid that in past years would have been sent to wastewater plants for partial treatment, and then discharged into rivers that also serve as drinking water supplies.

But those figures were revealed Thursday to have been wildly inflated, due to a mistake by Seneca Resources Corp., a subsidiary of Houston-based National Fuel Gas Co. The company said a worker gave some data to the state in the wrong unit of measure, meaning that about 125,000 barrels of recycled wastewater was misreported as more than 5.2 million barrels.

The error left the false impression that, as an industry, gas companies had created about 10.6 million barrels of wastewater in the last six months of 2010, and then recycled at least 65 percent of that total.

"They did put in gallons where they should have put in barrels," Seneca spokeswoman Nancy Taylor explained after the error was reported Thursday by the Philadelphia Inquirer. There are 42 gallons in every barrel. Taylor said the company was working to correct its information.

So how much waste did the industry actually recycle? It may be impossible to say with certainty.

Not counting Seneca's bad numbers - and assuming that the rest of the state's data is accurate - drillers reported that they generated about 5.4 million barrels of wastewater in the second half of 2010. Of that, DEP lists about 2.8 million barrels going to treatment plants that discharge into rivers and streams, about 460,000 barrels being sent to underground disposal wells, and about 2 million barrels being recycled or treated at plants with no river discharge.

That would suggest a recycling rate of around 38 percent, a number that stands in stark contrast to the 90 percent recycling rate claimed by some industry representatives. But Kathryn Klaber, president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, an industry group, stood by the 90 percent figure this week after it was questioned by The Associated Press, The New York Times and other news organizations.

"I am definitely holding to the 90 percent," she said, adding that her figure was based on internal industry data. "It is definitely high and going higher."

As for the wastewater management reports filed annually with the state and reported to the public, she and other people in the industry said they aren't fully representative of the industry's practices.

At least one company, Range Resources of Fort Worth, Texas, said it hadn't been reporting much of its recycled wastewater at all, because it believed the DEP's tracking system only covered water that the company sent out for treatment or disposal, not fluids it reused on the spot.